The JSOM students recently inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigmabusiness honor society included 19 PhD candidates,70 graduate students and 60 undergraduates.

During a year in which business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma observes its 100th anniversary, a speaker at the recent UT Dallas annual induction ceremony focused on learning from the wisdom of the past.

Keynoter Matrice Ellis-Kirk told the audience that she was raised by her great-grandmother and grandmother, women who had little education themselves but who “understood the power and the empowerment education brings.”

The remark resonated with the inductees and their supporters, including faculty, families, friends and even bosses. To earn an invitation to join the society, the Naveen Jindal School of Management students had to be in top academic standing.

Well-known in Dallas business and civic communities, Ellis-Kirk’s service includes membership on the boards of the North Texas Tollway Authority and of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. She is married to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.

She spoke about the meanings of Beta, Gamma and Sigma, Greek letters originally selected to represent the last names of the society’s founders, D. Earle Burchell, Stephen W. Gilman and William A. Scott.

“As leaders, we need purpose,” she said. “We strive to build, improve, drive, multiply and have a positive impact.”

In all, about 150 JSOM students joined the society this year. That number included 19 PhD candidates, 70 graduate students with grade-point averages of 3.85 or higher and 60 undergraduates, who had to place in the top 10 percent of their classes.

Chapter President Monica Powell, the Jindal School’s associate dean for graduate programs, said the latest induction brings the chapter’s total membership to 1,234.